The rain this week was expected to increase the peak flow in the reservoir to around 70,000 cubic metres per second, considerably higher than the 50,000 figure recorded in 1998, when floods killed more than 4,000 people

China is buffeted by rainstorms and typhoons every summer. Last month, southern provinces were lashed by unusually fierce floods that killed more than 200 people and forced the relocation of 2.4 million others